Chinese Painting

Here are some great tips to help you paint in an oriental style. You will need: Tracing paper Watercolour paint

Chinese style paintings are often done using special inks and pigments on rice paper. But for this Art Attack you just need ordinary watercolour paints and tracing paper!

When painting on tracing paper it's best to use only a little water. Even though you're using watercolour paint you need the brush to be fairly dry - otherwise the paper will buckle. Lots of Chinese paintings feature landscapes, flowers, trees and even animals. So that's what Neil's drawing here.

Because the brush is quite dry, you'll almost have to scrub the paint on! You don't have to be too perfect; the picture should be light and wispy.

Here you can see that Neil is moving on to other colours now. Again, try not to use too much water. Just dab the paint on.

How about a butterfly flitting around the blossom?

When you've put in all the basic bits, leave it to dry. This shouldn't take too long because there's not much water in the paint. Now, use a smaller brush for some finer details. Use the tip of the brush to paint on thin lines.

There you have it - an authentic, old, traditional Chinese design, even looking like it's on rice paper!

You could even try some different designs. How about this one: a bird on bamboo?

Or this great landscape design? Remember to keep your brush quite dry because otherwise you'll end up with too many wrinkles in the paper. Try it yourself!